ther longer than usual?

However, he sat down, delivered his book, and they talked first about
her mother's illness. They had been anxious, she said, but the doctor,
who had just taken his departure, had now completely reassured them.

'Then you will be able probably after all to put in an appearance at
Lady Charlotte's this evening?' he asked her.

The omnivorous Lady Charlotte of course had made acquaintance with him
in the Leyburns' drawing-room, as she did with everybody who crossed her
path, and three days before he had received a card from her for this
evening.

'Oh yes! But I have had to miss a rehearsal this afternoon. That concert
at Searle House is becoming a great nuisance.'

'It will be a brilliant affair, I suppose. Princes on one side of
you--and Albani on the other. I see they have given you the most
conspicuous part as violinist.'

'Yes,' she said with a little satirical tightening of the lip. 'Yes--I
suppose I ought to be much flattered.'

'Of course,' he said, smiling, but embarrassed. 'To many people you must
be at this moment one of the most enviable persons in the world. A
delightful art--and every opportunity to make it tell!'

There was a pause. She looked into the fire.

'I don't know whether it is a delightful art,' she said presently,
stifling a little yawn. 'I believe I am getting very tired of London.
Sometimes I think I shouldn't be very sorry to find myself suddenly
spirited back to Burwood!'

Langham gave vent to some incredulous interjection. He had apparently
surprised her in a fit of _ennui_ which was rare with her.

'Oh no, not yet!' she said suddenly, with a return of animation. 'Madame
Desforets comes next week, and I am to see her.' She drew herself up and
turned a beaming face upon him. Was there a shaft of mischief in her
eye? He could not tell. The firelight was perplexing.

'You are to see her?' he said slowly. 'Is she coming here?'

'I hope so. Mrs. Pierson is to bring her. I want mamma to have the
amusement of seeing her. My artistic friends are a kind of tonic to
her--they excite her so much. She regards them as a sort of show--much
as you do, in fact, only in a more charitable fashion.'

But he took no notice of what she was saying.

'Madame Desforets is coming here?' he sharply repeated, bending forward,
a curious accent in his tone.

'Yes!' she replied, with apparent surprise. Then with a careless smile:
'Oh, I remember when we were at Murewell, you were